Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c11.30

c11.30

At Kohtras Buthi in Sind there is a small settlement on a hill-spur which has double defensive walls built across the base of the spur to form, in European archaeological terminology, a ‘promontory-fort’ of the site. This fortification suggests comparison with another Sind site, that on Tharro Hill. Here is an isolated, flat-topped hill, now inland but on what was the prehistoric coast-line, from which it would have projected as a promontory or as an island in tidal marshes. The fortifications, as at Kohtras Buthi, take the form of double walls, curved and of massive construction and 50 feet apart, cutting off the southern headland of the hill in true promontory-fort manner. These walls are now ruined, though a stretch of original face has been exposed at one point on the inner defences, and their nature was unrecognized by Majumdar when he visited and reported on the site. Amri ware occurs on the surface, but there is also evidence of considerable occupation with plain red ware allied to that of Harappā, and it is therefore uncertain to which phase the defences belong, though the Amri period seems the most likely. At Dhillanijo-kot, again in Sind, there are traces of a defensive wall surrounding the Amri settlement, but in general the villages appear to have been undefended by walls or ramparts.